Aluminum barrels (e.g., cylinders) are weldable to domes (e.g., hemispheres) to make launch vehicle propulsion (e.g., propellant or fuel) tanks. Such barrels may be made from four 90.degree. curved panels that are weldable together along longitudinally extending seams in a vertical weld fixture or tool. Generally, for purposes of welding the panels to form a tank, the panels may be placed on a horizontal turntable of the vertical weld fixture and then rotated into clamping bars of the vertical weld fixture. Thereafter, a two torch-single pass/variable polarity gas tungsten arc system may be used to butt-weld the panels together. For a four panel fuel tank, this process is repeated four times to produce a complete barrel.
Prior to butt-welding a first panel to a second panel, the panels are typically transported from a loading area to one or more preparation areas, manually prepared (e.g., cleaned and sanded by hand) at the preparation area(s) in order to enhance the weld, and additionally moved from such panel preparation areas to the weld fixture. Current practices for both manually preparing and moving panels can be labor intensive, time consuming, expensive and inefficient.